Jammu Kashmir has seen waves of insurgency since 1989. Ideologically, separatists from all of the districts of Jammu Kashmir have participated in the anti-state rebellion from the very day the “rigged” state elections were held in 1987.
This led to a start in an insurgency where the once political leaders changed into leaders of armed insurgent groups. Since then, District Doda has actively seen massive causalities caused by the conflict between the insurgents and the state forces.
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According to some official figures released by Jammu Kashmir Assembly, 3400 disappearances and 47000 along with 7000 security personals have lost their lives in this conflict till 2009.
The deaths caused by insurgency had fallen down in the last decade of the 2000s, but with the coming of BJP, “A Hindu Religious Nationalist Party”, the figures have risen since 2014.
District Doda had seen it’s last insurgent in around 2009. Since then, the people of the area/district were busy with their daily livelihood and were running their businesses smoothly.
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However, after the BJP came into power, the Youths of Doda were once again found inclined towards the alive insurgent thoughts of Kashmir Valley. Although few SPOs did end up joining militancy during this time period, most of them didn’t survive for long.
The first youth, who joined the new age militancy from District Doda was Abid Hussain Butt from Sazan area of Doda. In July 2018, a 25-year-old Abid Hussain Bhat joined the Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit but got killed within a month after joining along with another militant in an encounter in Anantnag district.
He was the first youth of District Doda to get killed in the second phase of insurgency.
Soon after Abid Hussain’s killing, six more youths joined the ranks from Chenab valley. This included 4 youths from Kishtwar district (earlier erstwhile District Doda) and among them, two were from Doda.
A second youth, who joined the new age of militancy Doda was Haroon Abass Wani from Ghat Doda.
Haroon Abass, an MBA graduate from the Katra University, used to work at a private company in Jammu. He quit his job when he joined the Hizbul Mujahideen. According to his friends, he was a brilliant & religious man. Haroon joining insurgency was followed by another youth, Masood, son of Abdul Ghani Bhat, a resident of village Manjmi, Bhagwah of District Doda.
Haroon first came into the limelight after a photo of him holding an AK-47 rifle went viral on social media in September 2018 when he joined the Hizbul Mujahideen. Haroon Abass Wani survived for all most 16-17 months, during which he remained very active in Chenab valley with another militant, ‘Osama Javid’ of District Kishtwar, who later got killed in Batote encounter in September 2019.
During Haroon’s stint with a gun, it’s believed that he was a part of group of Hizb militants who were involved in the killing of Parihar brothers in 2018, weapon-snatching from Daleep Kumar, PSO of Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar, in 2019 and the killing of RSS leader from Kishtwar Chanderkant and his PSO in 2019.
After killing of his associate, Osama Javid in Batote encounter, Haroon limited his area of operation to District Doda only with another outfit from Kashmir, Tahir Hussain Bhat. In Doda, they successfully gave slips to security forces during many Cordons.
As the news & popularity of the new-age militancy started growing and presence of Haroon with another outfit of Kashmir valley surfaced in Doda, security agencies put all efforts to curb this second phase of insurgency from Chenab valley from the basic root level.
District police Doda put up posters announcing cash award of Rs 15 lakh on information leading to arrest or killing of Hizb Commander Haroon.
Within three months the announcement of the award, Haroon with his associate got trapped in village Tantna of Doda’s tehsil Gundna on 15 January 2020. This led to the killing of Haroon but Tahir alias@Uqab managed to escape from the encounter. Forces claimed his killing as a major success of the year. Thousands of people attended Wani’s funeral which was held in 5 rounds despite strict restrictions & bad weather. The day before his funeral, District Administration Doda imposed section 144, which led to minor clashes between youths & security forces.
After Haroon’s killing, his associate Tahir Hussain Bhat Alias @Uqab operated single-handedly in District Doda for almost 4 months before getting trapped in Khotra village of Doda which led to an encounter & ended in the killing of Tahir Bhat. During encounter one security person was killed & few others ware injured.
After killing of both Haroon & Tahir, Security forces start looking for the lone surviving militant of new-age militancy Masood Ahmed, who had joined the banned insurgent outfit of Hizbul Mujahideen in 2018 along with Haroon.
As Masood had already shifted his area of operation to the valley, security forces had initially failed to find him in Doda. However, on 29th of June 2020, Masood Ahmed was Killed in an encounter in South Kashmir`s Anantnag district along with his two associate.
With the killing of Masood, new age militancy ended in District Doda of Chenab valley. As of now, there is no active militant of new-age militancy in Doda. Masood’s killing declared Doda as “a Militancy free District” as Twitted by DGP Dilbag Singh. but the threat is not over yet.
With the presence of Jahangir Saroori, the longest surviving militant of Kashmir Armed struggle and other active militants in Kishtwar, a native District Of Doda, it won’t be a surprise, if they will manage to recruit more youths in District Doda in near future in Armed rank.